At the end of March it is time to clean the beds form the extinct plants form the previous year. The dry leafs protected a lot of useful insects from the cold of the Winter. The soil biota is protected by a small coat of foliage, which too prevented the soil from drying up. In this picture you can see the gray-brown ugliness of the dead plants covered by a thin clean coat of snow.

As soon as it is warm enough all the extinct plants and twigs must be cleaned from the beds. Unfortunately my small composter is full at that time. So I have to deploy the compost. At the same time I sow mustard which keeps on protecting the soil and keeps the nutrient from the compost in the soil. In the last weeks the mustard grew very fast.

I cleared the bed from the mustard, but left the plants on the soil for mulching to further protect the soil from dry out. The tomatplants are dibbled to their first real leaf into the soil. In that way the tomatoplant can grow additional roots at the stem to provide more nutrient to the plants.

I planted some marigolds too. It is said that they benefit the growth of tomatoes, verifiable they improve the soil - just like a medical plant. They also kill nematodes and look quite nicely on the still boring looking beds. Between the rows I planted celery and cabbage turnip. As soon as the cabbage turnip is harvested I'll plant busch beans. All of those vegetables are very good partners for the tomatoes.